The New York Times has a lengthy article reporting the many, many ways that DOGE cuts are threatening the safety of Americans’ food.
In the last few years, foodborne pathogens have had devastating consequences that alarmed the public. Bacteria in infant formula sickened babies. Deli meat ridden with listeria killed 10 people and led to 60 hospitalizations in 19 states. Lead-laden applesauce pouches poisoned young children.
In each outbreak, state and federal officials connected the dots from each sick person to a tainted product and ensured the recalled food was pulled off the shelves.
Some of those employees and their specific roles in ending outbreaks are now threatened by Trump administration measures to increase government efficiency, which come on top of cuts already being made by the Food and Drug Administration’s chronically underfunded food division.
Like the food safety system itself, the cutbacks and new administrative hurdles are spread across an array of federal and state agencies.
The Times provides numerous details on just how bad and how pervasive the vulnerabilities are. For example, frozen government credit cards has “impeded” FDA staff from buying food it routinely tests for deadly bacteria. At the Agriculture Department, “a committee studying deadly bacteria was recently disbanded, even as it was developing advice on how to better target pathogens that can shut down the kidneys.”
If you’re wondering why Musk and his puppet, Donald Trump, might be doing so much to make food poisoning great again, these paragraphs from The Times hint that corporate greed might have something to do with it:
The [joint FDA/Agricultural] microbial committee was studying how to more accurately identify infants who would be most at risk from cronobacter sakazakii, the deadly bacteria that contributed to the decision to temporarily shut down an Abbott Nutrition infant formula plant in Michigan in 2022. The committee planned to then provide advice to caregivers who should use sterile liquid formula instead of powdered formula, which is not sterile.
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The F.D.A. did not respond to a question about whether Kyle Diamantas, its food division chief, was involved in the decision to axe the committee. A former corporate lawyer, Mr. Diamantas worked on cases defending Abbott over claims of harm related to infant formula.
